Investigations of new phenothiazine-based compounds for dye-sensitized solar cells with theoretical insight

Abstract

New D- -D- -A low-molecular-weight compounds, based on a phenothiazine sca old linked via an acetylene unit with various donor moiety and cyanoacrylic acid anchoring groups, respectively, were successfully synthesized. The prepared phenothiazine dyes were entirely characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The compounds were designed to study the relationship between end-capping donor groups’ structure on their optoelectronic and thermal properties as well as the dye-sensitized solar cells’ performance. The e ect of -conjugation enlargement by incorporation of di erent heterocyclic substituents possessing various electron–donor a nities was systematically experimentally and theoretically examined. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations were implemented to determine the electronic properties of the novel molecules.